Kerin

“He was thinking of a diner near Queen West and Spadina, a place he'd frequented with Clark when they were seventeen...All these decades later, the place was eerily unchanged...He remembered being here with Clark at three or four or sometimes five in the morning, during what seemed at the time like adulthood and seemed in retrospect like a dream. The dream lasted just a moment, but the moment was bright: both of them taking acting classes, Arthur working as a waiter while Clark burned through a small inheritance.”
― Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

“There is an eternity behind and an eternity before, Onion. That little speck at the center, however long, is life. And that is but comparatively a minute," he said. "I has done what the Lord has asked me to do in the little time I had. That was my purpose. To hive the colored.”
― James McBride, The Good Lord Bird

“Somebody might wonder why a big man like me would be scared of a small man, half his size. But size doesn't count for much in this world. I once saw Mouse put a knife in a big man's gut. I was drunk and that man, Junior Fornay was his name, was after me becauyse he thought the girl I was with was his. He ripped off his shirt and came after me bare-fisted and bare-chested. They cleared the barroom and we went at it. But I was drunk and Junior was one of those field hands that you would swear was born from stone. He pounded me until I hit the floor and then he started kicking. I balled up to try and save myself but you know I could hear my dead mother that night: She was calling my name.
That's when Mouse strolled up.
Junior waved a piece of furniture at him but Mouse just put his hand in the air. I swear he couldn't reach as high as Junior's forehead but he said, "He got his lesson, man, you gotta let him live so he can learn."
"You better git..." was all Junior could say before Mouse had his stiletto buried, maybe just half an inch, in the field hand's gut. I was lying between them, looking up. I could see Mouse smiling and I could see Junior's face grow pale. Mouse quick-grabbed Junior's neck with his free hand and said, "You better drop that stick or I'ma stir the soup, boy."
I think I would rather have the beating than to see that, and smell it too.
I remembered Junior holding his bloody shirt and running from the bar. Then I thought of what Mouse had said when I tried to thank him.
"Shit, man, I din't save you. I just wanted to cut that boy 'cause he think he so bad...See what he think now..." And we never talked about it again.”
― Walter Mosley, Gone Fishin'

“You’ve got to be strong to get old.”
― James McBride, Deacon King Kong